O2 quietly cans gratis Cloud Wi-Fi connectivity

O2 has quietly dropped The Cloud from the list of Wi-Fi hotspot aggregators it grants its mobile customers free access to.

Until the start of the month, O2 customers could access the internet through The Cloud's many WLANs. Now, however, only BT Openzone and O2's own O2 WiFi hotspots are included for free.

Punters tell us that O2 didn't let its customers know about the change. Fortunately, details of the change are available tucked away on its support website. Others O2 customers received texts, they tell us.

The Cloud claims to have around 6500 hotspots across the UK. O2 Wi-Fi is shooting for 14,000 by 2013, and the move suggests the operator simply wants to shift its punters onto its own network rather than one it no doubt has to pay The Cloud to use.